Now that the US government is getting involved, it has some people wondering why any government is involved in the first place

Everyone has something to say about privacy issues and whether or not Yahoo and Google should censor material for the Chinese government. Earlier today, Chinese officials argued that it has the right to police the Internet in any way that it deems appropriate for the citizens of China. This statement comes a day after four companies spoke in front of Congress on charges that blame the companies for helping limit free speech in return for market access.

Yahoo, Google, Cisco Systems, and Microsoft were recently grilled at a congressional hearing about human-rights violations and censorship because of various decisions made by each company. It has been well known that China is notorious for censoring and arresting users that don't abide by the strict rules that the government has put in place. Specifically, Google is under fire from critics for bowing down and agreeing to censor content so the company is allowed to do business in China. Microsoft is blamed for removing a blog that was too critical of the government. Yahoo allegedly gave information to the government which led to a crackdown on Chinese citizens and journalists.

With some analysts speculating that the number of Internet search users in China may increase from 100 million to 187 million people by 2007, we should become acclimated to the possibility that more companies will do whatever the Chinese government wishes in return for open market access.

"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates